


Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart

by krazieLeylines



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Ashen Romance | Auspistice, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Multi, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Polyamory, Post-Sburb, Post-Sburb/Sgrub
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 22:34:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7863823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krazieLeylines/pseuds/krazieLeylines
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The title is a reference to Steven Universe, because that's my current obsession. Basic summary: Dave, Jade, Karkat, Nepeta, Terezi, Gamzee, and Equius go on a road trip across New USA together. There is a complicated romantic entanglement between five of the characters, and some occasional drama.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Will all the chapters have song lyrics as titles? Probably not, but we'll see. I'm mostly making this all up as I go along. I know the ot5 is confusing so let me break it down for you here:
> 
> Dave and Karkat: flushed  
> Dave and Jade: flushed/human romance  
> Karkat and Jade: flushed  
> Dave and Nepeta: flushed  
> Karkat and Nepeta: flushed  
> Terezi and Nepeta: flushed  
> Jade and Nepeta: flushed  
> Dave and Terezi: flushed  
> Karkat and Terezi: vacillating flushed and caliginous, mostly caliginous  
> Terezi and Jade: entirely caliginous

Karkat was having a pleasant dream for once in his life, when he became aware of a strange noise. It was familiar, but far away, and had nothing to do with his dream. The saccharine sound slowly dragged him into consciousness. He listened, and realized he could make out words.

“…sweetest dream will never do,  
I'd still miss you, baby,  
And I don't wanna miss a thing…”

Someone was singing, Karkat thought to himself grumpily. He opened his eyes. It was still dark out. Karkat glared at his alarm clock and attempted to figure out why on New Earth someone would be singing so early in the morning. Or more importantly, who would do such a thing?

“…kiss your eyes and thank God we're together  
And I just wanna stay with you…”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. Karkat would recognize that ironically exaggerated southern twang anywhere, though right now he wished he didn’t.

Next to Karkat, Gamzee rolled over to bury his face into Karkat’s back. “Ehhhhhhhhh,” he complained in his sleep.

“I don't wanna close my eyes  
I don't wanna fall asleep  
'Cause I'd miss you…”

Karkat kicked back the covers and walked over to the window. He threw it open violently. To his surprise, Dave was being accompanied by Jade, who was strumming along on her acoustic guitar. Their duet petered out awkwardly at the sound of Karkat’s screen being slammed open.

“What the blistering bulgefucking hell are you doing?” Karkat whisper-hissed down at them.

Thankfully, Jade appeared to be a tad remorseful. She moved her guitar behind her and didn’t meet Karkat’s gaze immediately. Dave, on the other hand. Well, he swung his arms out wide and proclaimed, “Why, we’re serenading you, obviously!”

“I can see that, you common sense deficient dunderfuck! Obviously I meant ‘why the hell are you doing anything at all, at fuck all o’ clock, instead of being a sane person and sleeping?’”

There was no reply at first, and Karkat was starting to wonder if Dave and Jade were sleepwalking or something. But then Jade spoke.

“Karkat, did you forget what day it is?”

“Trick question, Harley, it’s not even day at all right now.” Then, after Karkat was done being smart, he remembered what Jade was talking about. “Wait, you said we were leaving before noon,” Karkat said, “Not before sunrise.”

“We said we wanted to leave early,” Jade corrected Karkat. She glanced at Dave, leaned on his shoulder, and whispered into his ear.

Karkat watched them have a quiet conversation, half-heartedly considering whether to say something. But he couldn’t think of anything witty. So he slumped on the windowsill, and focused on not falling back asleep.

Just as Karkat’s eyelids were becoming unbearably heavy, Dave knocked on the side of the house to get his attention.

“Hey, don’t fall asleep on me there, Karkat,” Dave called up, “I mean, I’d catch you if you fell out the window, but I’m betting it’s still one hell of an experience you’d rather avoid.” He paused, and then his lips twitched, a sure sign he was suppressing a smile. “Especially if you took my advice and started sleeping in the nude.”

Ah yes, that age-old conversation. Karkat resisted rolling his eyes. “No, I haven’t, and stop fucking bringing that up. I’m not going to sleep bare-assed in bed with my moirail just to give you something to wank your pasty ass human bulge over.”

“And I keep telling you, this isn’t like a weird fetish or anything. I’m just saying that you should let your giggleberries breathe once in a while so you don’t wake up with swampy nuts. They will thank you.”

“Boys.” That was Jade, always having to be the one to get things back on track. “You can flirt and talk about your bits in the car.” She tucked her hair behind her ear (the human one), and glanced up at Karkat. “Sorry for waking you up, Karkat. I was being impatient because I’m so excited to get out on the road. But now that you’re up… do you mind if we leave early?”

Oh, god. Jade was using her puppy in the rain voice. Dave called it that because it not even the toughest of men could say ‘no’ to it. And Karkat was far from being the toughest man alive.

Karkat let out a loud, pointed sigh. “God assfucking dammit, Jade. Fine. Just let me wake Gamzee. He’s sure as fuck not going to be happy about this, though, so I’m letting you deal with him once he starts getting cranky.”

\--

“Where’s Vriskers?”

Terezi paused, wondering how much she wanted to tell Nepeta. As she pondered, she figured she might as well finish packing her stuff into the van Dave bought for the sole purpose of traveling across the country. But it didn’t grant her much time to think. She didn’t need to store much in the car, since she could keep everything else she might need in her sylladex. 

Thankfully, Nepeta was patient and allowed Terezi time to reply. 

“Vriska decided she wanted to stay behind,” Terezi finally said. She knew Nepeta would believe anything she told her, and felt a twinge of guilt. “She has other plans.”

That was a bad thing to say. Terezi silently begged Nepeta not to ask about what those plans were. 

There was a beat, where Terezi was sure Nepeta was going to press, but she didn’t. Instead, Nepeta said, “Well, that’s too bad. But I don’t think anyone will complain about the extra elbow space.”

Terezi found herself smiling at that. She hopped up on the front of the car beside Nepeta, and gingerly rested their heads together. “I know I won’t,” Terezi replied. At least that was true. She closed her eyes and listened to Nepeta’s rhythmic breathing. 

When Dave had first suggested that they’d go on a road trip together, he had intended for it to just be the five of them: Jade, Terezi, Karkat, Nepeta, and himself. But trolls were not good at being apart from their moirails for a significant amount of time. Soon the invite was extended to Gamzee, Equius, and Vriska. Which worked out rather nicely, as the van had eight seats. 

Terezi wished that Dave had put his foot down and stuck to his original plan, since she didn’t particularly want to be trapped in a confined space with Gamzee and Equius for any period of time. And now that Vriska wasn’t coming, either…

“Hey, no snoozing ‘til we hit the road, girls.”

Dave’s playful teasing always had Terezi giggling, and this time was no exception. She grinned widely in his direction. “I’m not sleeping, Dave,” she retorted, “I’m meditating on what a chick magnet I am. Look at this choice hottie I lured here with my captivating allure alone. I didn’t even do anything, just sat down and she followed me here.”

“Damn, she is cute. You’re going to put me out of business, TZ.”

The scent of olive blush filled Terezi’s nostrils. Nepeta began giggling at their silly banter. “Awww, you guys,” she said.

“Karkat!” Dave’s sudden leap in volume startled Terezi for a split-second. “Come over here and check out this total babe Terezi brought with her. She’s a beaut.”

Of course Karkat would want in on this, Terezi thought. What a stupid romantic. She looped her arm around Nepeta tightly and waited for Karkat to be within hearing distance. “That’s right,” Terezi said, “She’s all mine, though, I smelled her first.”

“Hogging her all to yourself, TZ? That’s not cool,” Dave joked.

“Holy globefondling shit.” That was Karkat. Terezi would recognize his gravelly voice anywhere. “Dave wasn’t lying. I guess love at first sight isn’t just a dumb fable for pants shitting wrigglers after all.” Terezi’s vision was blurry, but she could make out Karkat’s blurry form reaching for Nepeta’s hands. 

“Oh golly, now I’m in love with her, too.” That was Jade. When did she get there? It wasn’t fair when the godtier kids floated around instead of walking like normal people.

Terezi sniffed the air to see if there was anyone else nearby she was missing. She got hints of Equius’s offensive body odor and Gamzee’s sour grape stench, but they didn’t seem to be close by. She smiled. For the moment, it would be just the five of them.

“What a purrplexing pickle I’m in! Hmmm. What shall I do, what shall I do?” Nepeta hummed some more. “I guess I’ll just have to date you all, then!”

It really was a confusing dynamic they had all gotten themselves in. It had all started with Dave, who despite dating Karkat, still had feelings for Jade. And ever since Jade and Davepetasprite^2 kissed, Jade had assumed that she was destined to end up with Dave. Add to that the fact that Karkat never got the chance to confess his romantic feelings to Jade, and it was a mess. 

Eventually, the three of them had said “screw it”, and decided that a threeway matespritship wasn’t the end of the world. Terezi was happy for them, though by then she had remembered her relationships with Dave and Karkat in the previous timeline, and secretly yearned for a second chance. 

In a moment of weakness, Terezi had confessed to Nepeta, who also had lingering feelings for both Karkat and Jade, the latter from when she had kissed her as Davepetasprite^2. 

A fiveway matespritship was much more work than a threeway one, especially since Terezi and Jade didn’t always get along. While love did blossom between Terezi and Nepeta, as well as between Dave and Nepeta, Terezi’s feelings for Jade always leaned to the pitch side of things. And her relationship with Karkat flip-flopped from red to black so many times that Terezi thought her head would explode. 

Even today, their relationship wasn’t perfect. Terezi didn’t like Karkat or Nepeta’s moirails, for one, and that was a pretty important part of having a concupiscent partner. But she never regretted giving her knights another chance, like Vriska had insisted she would.

Right, Vriska. Terezi so did not want to think about her right now. Still, she found herself checking her phone for any messages. She had a bunch, just none from Vriska.

The lavender text was comforting to smell, though.

TT: As much as I detest sounding like a broken record, I feel compelled to reiterate this one last time:  
TT: I am happy for you. I am happy that you will be traveling and seeing new sights and just plain having fun for the next couple of months. However, I am equally as tentative. This is the first time since the game that Gamzee and you will be spending unsupervised time together.   
TT: As the auspistice, it is my duty to worry and fuss, of course. But there is logic behind the concern, too.   
TT: The last thing I wish to do is to be the kind of top club that coddles her ashmates to the point of excess. It is important that Gamzee and you are capable of functioning without me constantly hovering around you. Self-restraint, a skill you both desperately lack, is fundamental to adult life.  
TT: Therefore, I will restrain from checking up on you on a timed schedule, as Kanaya suggested. Instead, I am counting on the both of you to message me first, should you need me.  
TT: We can facetime or text, whichever method you believe would be more helpful.   
TT: Terezi, can I count on you to message me if you need me?  
  
God, Rose was wordy. She was almost as bad as her brother. Heh, she’d have to remember to tell Dave that later. She bet he’d have a very lengthy response.

Terezi typed a simple reply:

GC: Y3S DONT WORRY 1LL B3 F1N3  
  
She hit the send button, and then tucked her phone away. 

“C’mon, let’s hit the road already,” Jade whined impatiently. Terezi realized pretty much everyone was in the van already. She slid off to the ground and flipped Jade the bird before climbing into the far back seat to sit with Equius and Nepeta. 

She hoped no one would question her if she put her headphones in and listened to her music quietly for a while.


End file.
